Vienna

This song was written by the entire band and produced by Conny Plank, a German Electro wizard. It topped out at #2 in the UK, as "Shaddap You Face" by Joe Dolce infamously kept it from the top spot. Bassist Chris Cross commented to Mojo magazine February 2009 on this song stalling at #2 behind "Shaddap You Face": "It annoyed Midge Ure at the time. This is going to sound terrible, but I quite like that song, I think it's funny."

The song and video were party inspired by Carol Reed's 1949 film The Third Man, which takes place in Vienna.

Warren Cann, the band's drummer: "The song came together very quickly. I had a drum machine/synth pad (CR-78 & 'Synare' pads) pattern in mind that I'd wanted to do something with and played that... to paraphrase myself, I said something like, "What about this, then?" and began the 'Vienna' rhythm. We started playing something to it and then had the thought of using a chorus idea that we had laying around which we'd previously worked on but had no verse for. It all clicked in a few hours and we ironed out the rough spots the next day. Except for finessing the middle 'solo' section of the song once we were in the studio, that was basically it. A hit a day keeps the dole away. We knew it was the musical high point of the album and made it the title track. It was the song that best represented what we were trying to do. We were determined that it would be our third single and fought with Chrysalis over it; naturally, they thought it was far too long at six minutes, too weird for a Top 30 chart hit, and too depressing and too slow. Other than that, they liked it." (courtesy: Ultravox Discography)